Visionary Parenting: Discover God’s Purpose for Your Familyنموونە

According to Jesus, the most important command in Scripture is to love God. In Matthew, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament, specifically from Deuteronomy 6.

Here we find the two foundations of the Christian life: a love for God and a love for His Word. You and your children will be under continual attack to love other things more than God, and trust other things more than the Bible.

Notice the priority and focus on your heart! “Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . these commandments are to be upon your hearts.” God knows what our sinful hearts tend to do with “religion.” We tend to make it all about what we know and what we do. So if we know a lot of Bible information and act like “decent” people, we feel we are good Christians.

Jesus was surrounded by people who knew the Scriptures and sought to follow all the rules (and then some). They were called Pharisees. Jesus confronted them over and over again. Why? Because their hearts were far from God. We are not minimizing the importance of knowing God’s Word and believing His truth. Nor are we saying that our obedience to the Scriptures is not necessary for a joyful, fruitful Christian life.

The point is, God knows that if He has our hearts He will get everything else! We follow and serve what we truly love. Remember, we can’t lead our children in a direction we are not going in ourselves. We can’t give them a faith we do not have.